This invention relates to an interactive media guidance application that displays a mosaic page with selectable windows and/or cells personalized for a user or group of users, and more particular to an interactive media guidance application that displays video assets based on an expressed or historic interest of the user or group of users.
One exemplary interactive media guidance application is an interactive program guide (IPG) that allows television program information to be displayed on a user's television. Interactive program guides allow the user to navigate through television program information in the form of television program listings using a remote control.
Existing interactive program guides generally offer program guide data in a form of a menu with a program mix that is predetermined by the network operator. Program listings often show information regarding television programming in a neutral manner, such as textural information, that contain little, if any visual information, about the broadcaster and the contents of a program. Since the mix of programming options is fixed, it can in many cases not accommodate and/or remember customized settings for groups of users or individual users. A user typically is presented with a main menu and has to click through several options before arriving at a program habitually watched by the user.
Due to the ever increasing number of channels and services, such as Video-On-Demand (VOD), High-Definition Television (HDTV), Pay-per-View (PPV), Digital Video Recorder (DVR), music channels, etc., digital cable and digital satellite broadcast (DSB), subscribers are faced with an on-going challenge of simplifying and enhancing their TV viewing experience. In other forms of entertainment, for example, video and audio streamed over the Internet, TV users also lack the opportunity to personalize the vast array of television offerings and to present these offering in an informative and manageable form.
In many cases, a user tends to watch a limited number of favorite channels or is interested in certain genres or topics. Although detailed information about video assets available on other channels or from other sources is generally available, for example, supplied by the service provider with the interactive media guidance application, the user may be unaware of the information and may never access the asset.
It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods to present video assets to a user in a more user-friendly and interactive manner. It would also be desirable to provide systems and methods that can present a user with a personalized mosaic page based on the user's historic or expressed preferences, such as topics, names of shows, actors, sports teams, etc. It would furthermore be desirable to make the personalized mosaic page available to the user in a different format, from a different source and/or independent of the user equipment.